The Vine and the Branches
Study note
Jesus declares 'I am the true vine' and his Father is the gardener who prunes fruitful branches and removes fruitless ones. The disciples are called to abide in Jesus as branches connected to the vine, for apart from him they can do nothing. Abiding in him and his words produces answered prayer and abundant fruit that glorifies the Father. Jesus elevates the disciples from servants to friends, revealing that he has shared with them everything the Father has made known. The section is anchored by the command to love one another as he has loved them, with the ultimate expression being to lay down one's life for friends.
1 "I am the real grapevine, and my Father is the farmer who tends the vineyard." I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
2 "He removes every branch connected to me that does not produce any fruit. And every branch that does produce fruit, he carefully trims back so it will grow even more." Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
3 "The message I have already spoken to you has made you clean." Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
4 "Stay joined to me, and I will stay joined to you. A branch has no power to produce fruit if it gets cut off from the vine. It is the same with you -- you cannot bear fruit if you are not connected to me." Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
5 I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me, and I in them, bears much fruit; for without me you can do nothing. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
6 "Anyone who breaks away from me is like a branch that gets tossed aside and shrivels up. Those dead branches get swept into a pile and burned." If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
7 "If you stay connected to me and let my words live in you, go ahead and ask for whatever you want. It will happen for you." If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
8 "When you grow lots of fruit, it brings honor to my Father. It shows the world that you truly are my followers." Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
9 "I have loved you with the same love my Father has poured out on me. Make your home in my love and stay there." As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
10 "If you do what I ask, you will stay wrapped in my love. That is just like how I do what my Father asks and stay wrapped in his love." If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.
11 "I have shared all of this with you because I want my joy to fill you up completely -- until your joy is overflowing." These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
12 This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down their life for their friends. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
14 "You are my friends when you live by what I tell you." Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
15 "I am not treating you like servants anymore, because a servant is kept in the dark about what the master is planning. No, I am calling you my friends now, because I have let you in on everything my Father has shared with me." Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.
16 "You did not pick me -- I picked you. I chose you and gave you a mission: go out and produce fruit that will last. And when you ask the Father for anything using my name, he will give it to you." Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
17 "My command to you is straightforward: love each other." These things I command you, that ye love one another.
The World's Hatred
Study note
Jesus warns that the world will hate his followers because it first hated him. Since the disciples are chosen out of the world, the world treats them as it treated Jesus -- persecuting those who keep his word while rejecting those who do not. Jesus emphasizes that the world's rejection is without excuse because they have seen his works and heard his words. He promises the Comforter, the Spirit of truth from the Father, who will testify about Jesus, and the disciples too will testify because they have been with him from the beginning.
18 "When the world treats you with hatred, remember that it hated me first." If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
19 "If you fit right in with the world, the world would treat you like its own. But I have pulled you out of the world, and that is exactly why the world cannot stand you." If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
20 "Keep in mind what I told you: a servant is not more important than the master. Since they came after me, they will come after you too. If they paid attention to my teaching, they will pay attention to yours as well." Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.
21 "They will do all of this to you because you are connected to me, and they do not know the one who sent me." But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me.
22 "If I had never come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty. But now they have heard me, so they have no excuse for their sin." If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin.
23 "Anyone who hates me also hates my Father." He that hateth me hateth my Father also.
24 "If I had not done things among them that nobody else has ever done, they would not be guilty. But they have watched me do these things, and they hate both me and my Father anyway." If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.
25 "This all happened to make their own scripture come true: 'They hated me for no reason at all.'" But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.
26 "But I am going to send you the Helper from the Father -- the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father's side. When he arrives, he will tell the world about me." But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:
27 "And you will tell people about me too, because you have been at my side from the very beginning." And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.